Telangana Snoopgate: The SIT opens a Pandora’s Field
The day after the Congress was declared victorious within the December 2023 Meeting elections in Telangana — ending the 10-year rule of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) — there was uncommon exercise on the Particular Intelligence Department (SIB) of the state police in Hyderabad. For over an hour, all CCTV cameras had been switched off and greater than 60 laborious disks, containing delicate data on telephone tapping, had been destroyed and thrown right into a river.
This startling revelation by the Particular Investigation Workforce (SIT) exposes the size of the snooping operation orchestrated in the course of the BRS regime. Over 620 telephones belonging to over 6,500 folks — political rivals and their households, occasion dissidents, journalists, businessmen, celebrities and even judges — had been tapped between 2018 and 2023.
These being spied upon included the then state Congress president A. Revanth Reddy, his key supporters, members of the BJP and Congress, in addition to some leaders from the ruling BRS, together with former chief minister Okay. Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter and MLC Okay. Kavitha and her household. Over one lakh telephone calls had been reportedly tapped, by the in depth use of particular leased traces and devoted laptop techniques by a Particular Operations Workforce.
The most recent of the high-profile witnesses queuing as much as depose earlier than the SIT is Union minister of state for house affairs and former BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar. Congress chief B. Mahesh Kumar Goud additionally deposed as a witness.
Former SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao, the principle accused within the case who left for the USA quickly after the change of guard within the state, was compelled to return to Hyderabad following a Supreme Courtroom directive. Nonetheless, whereas subordinates who executed his directions have been spilling the beans, Rao has stayed mum.
Rao — who arrange a workforce of trusted aides inside the SIB to hold out the surveillance — claims he was performing below orders from “larger officers”, although no direct proof has but been produced.
Bolstered by witness testimonies, the SIT probe can also be taking a look at monetary irregularities, resembling money transactions throughout elections.
Among the many 4 senior cops who’ve already been arrested are former deputy commissioner of police P. Radhakishan Rao (who had additionally served as chief safety officer to KCR), extra superintendents of police Bhujanga Rao and Thirupathanna, and deputy SP Praneeth Rao. All of them admitted to monitoring non-public people illegally and destroying proof.
Beneath Part 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, tapping telephone calls requires prior approval from the ministry of house affairs (MHA). It’s permitted solely in distinctive circumstances, resembling a suspected menace to nationwide safety or public order.
A 2013 report by the parliamentary standing committee on house affairs — arrange following a grievance by late BJP chief Arun Jaitley, said that surveillance of elected representatives requires prior approval from both the Lok Sabha Speaker or the related legislative meeting Speaker. The BRS clearly had no qualms about ignoring these protocols.
A saffron hue-and-cry over the Backward Courses quota
The BJP is again to doing what it does greatest: communal politics. This time over the proposed enhancement of reservations for Backward Courses in Telangana. “The Congress had promised 42 per cent reservations for Backward Courses in its election manifesto. However now, below the guise of a ‘Backward Courses Invoice’, 10 per cent of that’s being diverted to Muslims, and solely 32 per cent will really go to Backward Courses,” mentioned BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar.
His declare is astonishing as a result of there isn’t a point out of a quota for Muslims within the proposed laws. The idea of the invoice was the Socio, Financial, Training, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) Survey 2024, in line with which Backward Courses — together with these belonging to the Muslim neighborhood — account for 56.33 per cent of the whole enumerated inhabitants. Hindu Backward Courses account for 46.25 per cent, whereas Muslims stand at 10 per cent.
The state Meeting had handed the Invoice in March 2025, in search of to extend the quota for Backward Courses in jobs and academic establishments from 23 per cent to 42 per cent. Governor Jishnu Dev Varma has since referred the invoice to the President, with the Congress authorities mounting strain for presidential assent.
The BJP has been opposing the inclusion of Muslim Backwards within the general Backward Courses quota, accusing the Congress of a conspiracy to offer reservations to Muslims so as to scale back advantages for Hindus.
The quota hike is predicted to face a authorized problem as its implementation would breach the 50 per cent cap set by the Supreme Courtroom. To take action, the state’s payments must be included within the ninth Schedule of the Structure, as was finished in Tamil Nadu, the place the reservation ceiling has been elevated to 69 per cent.
“The Central authorities is already implementing 27 per cent reservations for Backward Courses. The Congress’s so-called ‘BC invoice’ offers solely 5 per cent extra reservation to Backward Courses, whereas utilizing it as a canopy to grant 10 per cent to Muslims,” mentioned Sanjay Kumar.
“The BJP has at all times opposed Muslim reservations. We demand full 42 per cent reservations completely for Backward Courses; in any other case, we are going to block the invoice in any respect prices. If this toxic tree is just not uprooted in Telangana, it can unfold throughout the nation… Our stand is evident. Faith-based reservations go in opposition to the spirit of the Structure,” he added.
Irony, anybody?
